


Falling In Too Deep (into the sea)

by Maknaeholic



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: But he knows English, ChanLix are Australians, Except for WooJin, I mean... College!AU too. I guess..., Ignore me explaining the whole plot here, JeongIn is 18... so it goes up from there, M/M, Selkies!AU, The rest are Koreans who went to live in Australia when they were kids
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-02 11:15:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16304132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maknaeholic/pseuds/Maknaeholic
Summary: Growing up surrounded by the ocean, Chris couldn’t recall a time when he wasn’t in love with the water.





	1. I

**Author's Note:**

> This will be a chaptered fic, I pray that I'll find the time, strenght, and sufficient sleep, to update it constantly. I hope it won't become too long, as in... 5 to 6 chapters tops, maybe less if possible, which means they'll be long. I don't want to spoil the fic's plot, so I won't say any of the boys's secrets.
> 
> Well, without further delay, I hope you enjoy it!
> 
> Title was picked by my friend Andy because, and I quote, "it gave her ChanLix vibes."
> 
> PD: Unbeta-ed, sorry there might be several mistake, I'll fix them when I'm not falling asleep.

Growing up surrounded by the ocean, Chris couldn’t recall a time when he wasn’t in love with the water’s beauty. The sea had been his first love. Chris couldn’t quite recall, as he turned into a teenager, what made him so mesmerized by it (while the rest of his friends were done with his weekly visits to the different beaches around Sydney) no matter how much time passed or how many times he saw it. He practically grew next to it, so why was he so enamored by it? Though all ways led to the ocean when you live on a floating piece of land in the middle of it, Chris always saw something no main land could have. Chris could spend the rest of his life staring at the waves, crashing against each other, his feet barely getting touched by the seafoam.

 

Classes started just as the raining season did, and for Chris it meant the beginning of his sophomore year in college, along with his first day as a host for a student from one of the exchange programs. His housemate hadn’t been very excited about the idea, but the foreign boy had arrived a few days earlier to get all of his stuff and papers in order, and the three of them had hit it off really well (as they were Korean too, it was easy for them to communicate, although the student spoke perfect English). Both of them helped him with the basic things: how to take the bus, their favorite take-out places, also Chris made sure to take him to the shore near their apartment complex.

 

“Guys, we need to go,” Chris called out, “ChangBin! C’mon, we don’t wanna be late on our first day!”

 

“Why can’t you be quiet like WooJin?” ChangBin complained as he dragged his feet towards the door where his two housemates were waiting for him, “It’s 6am…”

 

“Let’s go or we’ll miss the bus.”

 

The bus station was a few blocks from their apartment, and the ride to their college took about 30 minutes, so WooJin and ChangBin used Chris’ shoulders as pillows to catch some sleep. The only awake boy stared out the window, admiring the view of the reflected first rays of the rising sun on the crystal-clear water as they were waiting on a red light. Even when it was already his second year as a Music Theory and Composition major, Chris was still unsure if he would be able to live off of his career, but it was late to regret his choice. Perhaps that's the reason why his mind often wandered off. About to look away from the window, he swore he could see something breaking the still surface, but as soon as he leaned into the glass (accidentally knocking his sleeping friends awake), the bus sped off. ChangBin whined as he tried to push Chris off, claiming that he was getting squeezed between the older and the seat.

“Damn!” Chris exclaimed as he ran ahead of his two friends, “Whose idea was to start classes during raining season?!” they had barely stepped down from the bus when the rain fell mercilessly, ruining whatever effort any of them put into their hairstyle.

 

Shaking like a dog, ChangBin made WooJin laugh out loud once they were inside the main building, “Oh, fuck,” the shortest among them moaned, “my first class in building D.”

 

“Why are you laughing, Chris?” WooJin asked to his host, who was practically rolling on the floor crying from laughter.

 

“It’s all the way across campus, right where we got off the bus,” ChangBin answered with a deep sigh, “well,” he placed his already wet backpack over his head, “see you at lunch?” the other two nodded and watched as he ran back into the pouring rain.

 

“Well, WooJin, I’ll be going. You need help finding your classroom?” Chris pushed his damp bangs back, but the exchange student shook his head. “Okey-dokey, see you later then!”

 

~

 

“Hey, losers!” Chris was taking a bit off his Tim Tam when their friend from Visual and Performing Arts major walked over to their table in the cafeteria, “Missed me during the break?”

 

“MinHo, we literally saw you three days ago,” ChangBin commented as a matter of fact, “sit down, already,” he pointed to one of the empty chairs across from him.

 

“JiSungie, you did miss me, right?” he leaned half of his body over the table, almost knocking over all the things on it, and rested his head on both hands, blinking up at the blonde boy that was trying to eat his sandwich, “Right?”

 

“My salad, man,” one of their freshmen friends complained, holding a professional camera on one hand and his salad bowl on the other, “I was trying to get a shot for my marketing class.”

 

“It’s the first day, HyunJin, how did you manage to have homework already?” JiSung turned to his left to judge his same-age-different-major friend.

 

“I’ll get behind on my due dates otherwise.”

 

“You mean you’ll procrastinate until the last minute,” HyunJin threw a death glare at ChangBin across the table. “Oh, look! WooJin! Here!”

 

With a hand in the air, WooJin spotted ChangBin before making his way towards them with another student by his side. Chris had been too immersed in his Tim Tam that he almost missed the most beautiful creature he had ever seen: a boy, average height, bright orange hair, tanned skin, and a constellation of pretty freckles on his gorgeous face. WooJin frowned before he pointed at the corner of his own lips; Chris frowned back at him, until MinHo interrupted him: “You have chocolate on your face, dumbass,” everyone, including the boy Chris had been staring at, laughed at him.

 

“Hi, I’m Felix,” his deep voice did not match his face, but Chris couldn’t be bothered at all, “I just transferred from Perth.”

 

“Perth?!” Chris, being the only Australian-born entirely, was honestly shocked, “Why would you leave such a beautiful city?”

 

“A-Ah, well, I wanted to study my major in Mythology and Folklore,” Felix explained a bit awkwardly, “and this is one of the only universities that has that major.”

 

“What major were you in, WooJin?”

 

“Comparative Literature, we have some classes together, so Felix and I were paired up for our first activity,” Felix nodded in agreement. “So, is it okay if he stays?”

 

Everyone accepted loudly, except for Chris who was still trying to collect his thoughts from aweing at Felix, and he almost pouted disappointed when WooJin took the empty seat next to him while Felix took the one next to ChangBin. ChangBin started to ask him all about his life in Perth, and Chris wanted to say something when JiSung questioned him about the latest song they were working on. After WooJin’s arrival, he had forgotten about it completely, so JiSung deadpanned at him upon seeing that dimpled smile he showed whenever he fucked up.

 

Minutes into the conversation, HyunJin stood up in a rush with his hands on the table, a shocked expression on his face, “Damn, has anyone seen baby JeongIn?!” everyone shook their heads, “We were supposed to go check the papers for our new housemate!” he took out his phone, dialing his friend’s number, completely ignoring Felix as he tried to tell him something.

 

HyunJin had run out of the cafeteria before Felix could open his mouth to tell him: “I think I should’ve told him I’m his new housemate…”

 

“Don’t worry, he’ll find out sooner or later,” MinHo shrugged, checking the time on his phone, “I’m going to have an absence on the first day!” he was already half way across the room as he cried over his tardiness.

 

“They’re quite a handful, excuse them,” Chris’ voice reached him, and he turned to find the other boy smiling apologetic at him. Felix merely shook his head with a small laugh, “It’s getting late, I should get going too,” he waved goodbye at the others, reminding WooJin and ChangBin to meet him in the main building at the end of their classes, then left with his and MinHo’s bags over his shoulder (the idiot had left it behind in his rush).

 

“Who’s telling MinHo someone stole his bag?” JiSung turned with a wicked smile towards the remaining three; ChangBin and he pointed at each other, after he showed the already sent message on his phone, just like in that Spiderman meme.

 

“I got you, bro!”

 

“Bro!”

 

Felix and WooJin looked at each other, then broke out in loud laughter.

 

~

 

"Guys, did anyone bring an umbrella? I really don't want to get wet again," ChangBin asked when he met with his friends again once his last period was over.

 

"I think I do," JiSung took off his backpack to check, "are you going back home?"

 

"Yeah, want to go work on some tracks?" his best friend nodded. "Let's go then. Bye, guys!" they left together under one umbrella.

 

"Chris, wanna share a taxi back home?"

 

Chris turned to WooJin, "Sorry, mate, I have to work," the exchange student arched an eyebrow, "I work part-time at a coffee shop near the Opera House."

 

"Oh?" a deep voice made them jump a bit, and both turned to find the owner grinning behind them, "Are you heading to the Opera House? I live nearby," Felix searched in his bag and took out an umbrella.

 

"What a coincidence, HyunJin lives around that area too," Chris laughed softly until he remembered, "oh, you’re supposed to live together, that’s true,” scratching the back of his head, he continued. “Did you find him and JeongIn?" he asked, helping WooJin with their address on the Uber app.

 

“JeongIn contacted me already a few days ago, showed me around and everything, but apparently he kind of forgot to tell HyunJin,” Felix shrugged amused.

 

"Well,” WooJin finally spoke, “I have to go, guys, my Uber is here," jogging a bit on his spot, WooJin smiled at the two Australians, "byeee!" with that, he made a run to his taxi thanks to the never-ending rain.

 

"Want to share the umbrella?"

 

Chris got distracted by Felix's pretty smile, "Uh? Yeah, yeah, thanks."

 

Chris' coffee shop was two blocks from The Opera House while Felix's aparment was six blocks away; Chris thanked him once more for sharing his umbrella and they parted ways. Chris stayed outside for a few seconds, watching Felix’s back until he crossed the street, but he hadn’t even put one foot inside the place when his co-worker was all over his case, "Ohhh, who was that, Chris?" he had the eyes of an Eagle, and the heart of an old lady with no social life in need of other's people's gossip to live, "He was super cute!"

 

"SeungMin?"

 

"Yes?"

 

"Your gay is showing," a plastic lid was thrown to his face, missing him completely.

 

Two hours into their shift, and a good number of costumers, SeungMin was cleaning the tables when Chris broke the comfortable silence they shared with a Day6 song playing softly in the background (since it was SeungMin’s turn to choose a song), “Where were you today, Minnie? I didn’t see you around campus,” he spoke as he washed the glasses and coffee mugs.

 

“I spent most of my day at building C,” SeungMin arranged the menus on the wall-mounted table, “though I did run into JeongInnie when I was on my way to the cafeteria, but we decided that we wanted something to eat from outside campus. We got ourselves some Subway,” he took out his phone to show his friend a picture of the huge Subway he ate.

 

“Oh, you should’ve told us! I only ate a vegemite sandwich,” Chris pouted, “and a Tim Tam.”

 

SeungMin chuckled, “MinHo texted me about the Tim Tam accident in front of the new Perth boy,” the younger suddenly lifted his hand, pointing at the door, as if there was someone, then back at Chris, “Oh my God! That’s Perth boy!”

 

“His name is Felix,” Chris corrected him, which turned out to be a bad idea.

 

“Aw, _‘his name is Felix,’_ someone’s got a crush already!”

 

“Shut up!”

 

“Chris likes—!” a wet cloth smacked SeungMin right in the face, “Ew! Ew! Ew!” he whined after he realized it was the cloth they used to clean the counter. Chris ended up holding onto the counter as he gasped for air from how much he laughed at SeungMin.

 

~

 

Once the two baristas were done with their shift, they would usually walk together to the light rail stop, but it was one of those nights where Chris did a goodbye fistbump with SeungMin and walked in the opposite direction. Straight for the beach. SeungMin knew of Chris’s love for the ocean, but sometimes he’d prefer it if his friend dedicated the same amount of time to finding himself someone who’d look at him like he looked at the waves. His phone buzzed from an incoming text from his housemate, asking what they were having for dinner, which made him roll his eyes so hard they hurt.

 

Barely being 8pm, Chan didn’t mind doing the twenty-minute walk along the beachside back to his apartment, when it would usually only take half of it if he went by light rail. There was something about feeling the sea breeze caressing his face, relaxing his whole body, that he couldn’t stop himself from stepping too close to the water with his eyes closed. He was so lost that he jumped a bit, as he blinked, at the sight of someone going into the water several feet away from him, so he did the right thing and turned his back towards them. It was mid-fall, who on Earth goes for a swim at that time of the night? They might be Australians, but not Polar bears. Chris turned seconds later, waiting for the person to come out, but after a whole minute, no one did. Worried, he came closer, forgetting all about the freezing water and almost getting knee-deep in (good thing he decided to wear shorts despite the weather), before something pushed the back of his legs. Chris was so glad no one else was around to hear his girly shriek. With some effort, as whatever touched him was against the moonlight, he was able to make the curvy outline of a seal.

 

“Ah,” he sighed with relief, “for a second I thought I’d be part of the 5% of people killed by sharks,” he moved his hands up and down. “Go on, the Opera House is like half a mile away. There you can rest,” the seal seemed to understand what he said, flipping its tail, and going back to the ocean. With that, he headed home, looking back for a slip second to see if he could catch the last sight of the seal, but instead he could swear he saw a head peeking out from the water. “I need to sleep,” Chris decided it was absurd, so he just went back to his apartment.

 

~

 

“You’re back,” ChangBin pointed out as Chris closed the door.

 

“No, you’re just hallucinating,” WooJin snorted from his place at their small dining table (that was used for practically everything; eating, working, sleeping). “Did you cook something, WooJinnie?”

 

“Mmh, there’s some pasta left in the fridge,” ChangBin rolled his eyes at Chris’s exaggerated grateful gesture of praying at the eldest. “I’m beat, I’m off to bed. Night, guys,” WooJin closed his laptop, grabbing his papers, and walked into his room.

 

“Night,” the other two said in unison: one with his mouth full holding a plate of pasta and the other distracted with his phone. “What you doing?” Chris asked in a sing-song voice, looming over ChangBin’s shoulder from behind the couch’s back.

 

“Nothing,” he moved away, pressing his phone against his chest, “it’s none of your business,” he repeated once Chris kept on leaning forward.

 

“Oh, c’mon, we’re best friends! We tell each other everything, is it because we’re not in the same major like you and JiSung?” he did a dramatic faint on the other end of the couch, always careful of not dropping his food, with the back of his hand to his forehead, “I feel so left out!”

 

“I sometimes wonder how we became best friends,” Chris broke into a huge smile, his dimple showing, as ChangBin rolled his eyes with a similar expression, “I might be… looking for someone’s Facebook.”

 

“Oh, who is it? Who is it? Is it someone new from your classes?” Chris took another big bite of pasta, only to choke on it after his friend chirpily said the person’s name.

 

“Mate, you okay? Careful,” ChangBin watched as his friend struggling to breathe.

 

Chris coughed so badly ChangBin had to fetch him a glass of water; with teary eyes, he finally was able to speak again, “Come again? Sorry, the whole… pasta trying to murder me thing distracted me. Who?”

 

“Felix,” the younger boy grabbed his phone from the coffee table to show him he was looking for “Lee Felix” on the search bar, “he’s very cute.”

 

“He is, isn’t he?” suddenly his pasta wasn’t as tasty as before, so he just left the plate on the table. “But… you only met him today.”

 

“It’s stupid, I know…” ChangBin nodded and pursed his lips; Chris felt bad for being a bit mean to him, “still… there’s just something about him. I want to know him more.”

 

“Okay, mate, I’ll help you get him,” the older clasped his hands together, “we need to work on a plan.”

 

Chris just wished he wouldn’t regret his decision, but the way ChangBin’s eyes smiled at him was a rare sight on his best friend.


	2. II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ignore my typos and mistakes, it's almost 2am, but I wanted to update.
> 
> I'll fix everything tomorrow.
> 
> Fixed!

Three weeks into his second year of college and Chris already wanted to throw himself from the tallest building in Sydney. Coming back from a long break, Chris had forgotten how exhausting it was to work and study at the time, and trying to throw the activities he had with 3RACHA (the group JiSung, ChangBin and he had created after they enrolled in their music majors) into the mix was pretty much impossible. Whereas his two best friends were studying to interpret the music they create, and of others, while maintaining their signature sound, as Chris spent three quarters of his time deciphering every single component in a melody he was given to study so he could use the raw sound to create one of his own. Sometimes, he wished he had listened to JiSung into taking the same major, but he had made his choice and he’d go through with it. He had barely touched his apartment in three days, having stayed at JiSung’s for two, before he decided that he needed to sleep on his bed.

 

“You’re not staying over tonight?” SeungMin asked, watching his friend move closer to the door to get down on the next stop.

 

“Nah, I don’t want to bother you or MinHo anymore.”

 

“Why are you such a drama queen?”

 

The trip back to his apartment, after his shift was over, was rather fast. SeungMin had patted his shoulder before Chris got off on his stop, and he was glad he had the day off the next day. ChangBin had texted him when he was on the rail, but he had forgotten to check it until he had opened the door to his place.

 

“Oh, hi,” a soft, but low, voice greeted instead of WooJin’s usual tone.

 

“Felix?” Chris was a bit surprised to see the Perth boy there, not because they hadn’t talked before; in fact, they had taken the habit of walking together to Chris’s work after their classes were over. However, it was strange to have him in his personal space, his and ChangBin’s, more so when his best friend had texted him that he would be staying with JiSung working on an assignment.

 

“WooJin’s in the bathroom,” he pointed in the direction of the bathroom door, as if Chris didn’t live there. “I’m here for a project we’re working on.”

 

“I see,” Chris left his keys on the small table next to the door, “don’t mind me, I’ll be in my room,” but WooJin greeted him before he could escape.

 

“Chris! We’re thinking of getting some pizza, you in?”

 

“Uh,” Chris’s eyes shifted between his friends, his fingers tightening around his phone, until he nodded shortly. “Sure, yeah, sounds good.”

 

Felix smiled so brightly at him that he thought his heart would melt right there.

 

~

 

Once done with their first exam period, JeongIn called them all to hang out at their (his, HyunJin and Felix’s) apartment to spend some time together. Chris was the last to arrive with SeungMin since they had to finish their shift at the coffee shop, hands full of snacks and a ChangBin’s favorite coffee.

 

“Oh, my savior,” ChangBin spoke directly to the cup in his hand, taking it away as soon as he walked in, “I love you.”

 

“Oh, yes, the hand that brought it here doesn’t deserve to be thanked,” Chris’ sarcasm went over ChangBin’s head. “Whatever,” he rolled his eyes with a smile.

 

They were supposed to have a marathon of Marvel movies, a few beers, a lot of meat that WooJin was cooking on the small balcony (they made sure that was completely safe and legal), and share their latest stories (also known as gossips). WooJin and Felix had fitted right-in in the group, no one would believe they had only met the other seven boys for a month. Besides all that, Chris was a part of ChangBin’s elaborated plan to spend the evening close to Felix, and he still didn’t have the heart to deny his best friend. For some reason, Felix tried to struck up a conversation with Chris, so he excused himself to the kitchen where JeongIn was taking a few cans of beer for WooJin and MinHo who were cooking the meat.

 

“Could you help me putting those there?” the youngest pointed at some empty bowls left on the counter.

 

“Sure,” Chris gave JeongIn a thumbs up before he stepped out. Anything to avoid getting caught in the middle of ChangBin’s plan. Someone touched his shoulder as he poured some chips into a bowl, and he almost dropped everything to the floor, “SeungMin, what the fuck?”

 

“I called you like five times, Chris,” pursing his lips, he crossed his arms in front of his chest. “What’s on your mind?”

 

“Nothing, I just need to sleep, you know?” he passed his fellow co-worker two of the filled-to-the-brim bowls. “I’m still tired from the exams.”

 

“Maybe you should’ve went back home,” SeungMin’s eyes softened, “it was a tough week for all of us. Do you want me to ask JeongIn if you can crash on his bed for a while?”

 

“Nah, I’m fine, thanks,” Chris smiled so his dimple would show, immediately walking back to the living, oblivious to the judging look from SeungMin.

 

Three of the boys, HyunJin, ChangBin and JiSung, were fighting on the couch over the TV’s remote to choose the first movie. JeongIn and Felix were standing close to the balcony door as they chatted with WooJin and MinHo, the two youngest holding a plate where WooJin placed the grilled meat. Chris stopped for a second to appreciate the view; he wanted to take a picture to save every single detail. Just as he was about to stop the childish fight, he crossed stares with Felix, who sent him a warm smile, so beautiful he had to stop for a second. SeungMin arched an eyebrow watching the interaction; then, felt another gaze and found ChangBin looking from the couch, so he went straight to him.

 

“ChangBinnie, how was your coffee?” SeungMin rested his arms on the top part of the back of the couch, shielding the two Australians from him.

 

ChangBin finally blinked up at him after a second, “Oh? Delicious, Minnie! Did you do it? You know I love it when you make it,” SeungMin shook his head. “Chris did it?”

 

“What did I do?” Chris placed the bowls on the coffee table and quickly snatched the remote from the other two, “Looks like we’ll be watching Black Panther!”

 

“Oh, I really like it,” Felix piped in, holding the large plate filled with meat. “Could someone make some space for this?” Chris was a moving some of the beer cans when ChangBin rushed forward, almost falling face first before grabbing the plate from Felix, taking the Perth boy by surprise. “Oh, I mean, it wasn’t heavy… thanks though, ChangBinnie,” he mumbled as the older boy set it down.

 

HyunJin exchanged stares with MinHo, who had joined them with WooJin right behind, making all of them witnesses of the awkward interaction. Felix slowly backed into JeongIn, “So, Black Panther it is?”

 

“Hell, yes!” WooJin cheered with the spatula high in the air, and everyone laughed.

 

Chris made sure to take one of the single chairs next to the couch, that way he wouldn’t interfere with ChangBin’s effort in sitting next to Felix. Finally, Chris was next to MinHo on the chairs, on the couch were JiSung, ChangBin, Felix and SeungMin, in front of them on the floo were HyunJin and JeongIn, leaving WooJin on the other end on another chair. A few minutes into the movie, MinHo leaned into Chris, to which he flinched away, thinking it was one of MinHo’s attempt to flirt, before he slapped the back of the older’s head.

 

“Idiot,” he signaled for him to come closer, “who’s going to tell ChangBin that he’s freaking poor Felix out?”

 

“He just likes him a lot,” they looked over at the youngers, “what are we supposed to do?”

 

“I get it, seriously,” they were whispering in each other’s ear, so when MinHo turned back, he jumped a bit at ChangBin’s stare on them, “though, I don’t think Felix’s interested in him in that way.”

 

Chris could only shrug at his friend, just as lost, faking a laugh to ease any attention they could’ve drawn upon them. Felix blinked up at them; Chan gave him a small smile. Right then, ChangBin shuffled a bit closer to Felix, slowly leaning his head on the younger’s shoulder. MinHo found SeungMin’s eyes after seeing Chris looking away, and both let out a silent sigh.

 

~

Seasons went by in the blink of an eye when college took all their time and energy; consequently, the group of friends didn’t see much of each other for the next two months. All of them were so busy trying to balance out their schedules that the only moment of the day they ever saw each other (or some of them) was during their lunch break (if they took one). Usually, it was much easier for the ones sharing major, or similar ones, to see each other. There were certain pairs or trios that would see much more of each other than the rest, besides the ones they lived with, but it was very rare to see the nine of them together. They had a group chat, which was usually a mess of over 100 messages each hour, where they texted daily, so they didn’t feel as distant. Sometimes they’d run into each other in the hallways or gardens, going to the bathroom, or even in the public transportation. Other times; however, one would be looking for a specific member all over campus to find out they were out grabbing some McDonalds three blocks from their college. It was common to find at least one of them asleep in the cafeteria, trying to catch some sleep.

 

Chris’ head shot up when someone slammed a book on the table he was taking a nap on after his lesson was cancelled. His eyes got so big they hurt, only to squint them at the culprit who deprived him of his well-deserved rest.

 

“You should be grateful you’re pretty, HyunJinnie,” he grumbled under his breath as he rubbed a hand over his face, trying to wake himself up completely. “What’s up?”

 

“Were you threating me with a compliment?” the Photography Major arched an eyebrow before he shook his head. “Whatever. I’m looking for a model for my portrait class.”

 

“Is this your way of asking me?”

 

“What? No.” Chris could’ve been less offended if HyunJin had at least pretended not to be as honest. “I was planning on asking JeongInnie.”

 

“Ah, last I knew, I think he was in building B,” Chris mentioned with a bored expression.

 

“Really? SeungMin told me they went out to grab something to eat off campus,” HyunJin saw Chris’ eyes light up. “Fine, let’s go meet them.”

 

~

 

“JeongInnie!” the youngest turned in his spot in line as they waited to order in the McDonalds near their campus, suddenly being wrapped in Chris’ arms. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever.”

 

“College culture, Chris,” even so, he hugged his friend back, happy to see him. “HyunJinnie!” he pulled the taller into the hug.

 

“Am I not invited into the group hug?!” SeungMin complained from somewhere on their right, ignoring how some people where cutting in line at their antics, before he was pulled in by HyunJin.

 

“You guys,” a deep voice called out from behind. “We don’t ever see each other in college, but we all manage to run into each other at McDonalds?”

 

The four boys turned their heads to look over at their other five friends, half of them also looking at the menu, and the remaining two laughing at the strange tangle of limbs that was blocking other costumers from making a line.

 

Chris apologized once he untangled himself from the others, scratching the back of his head as he looked at Felix, “So, what are you having?”

 

“McDonalds,” ChangBin pointed out, making the rest burst out in laughter, except for Felix who just rolled his eyes with a smile. “I think I’ll get some chicken nuggets though.”

 

“Share?”

 

“You know it,” completely forgetting that ChangBin had just made fun of Chris, they walked together to the front counter to order.

 

“Oh, dude, bro goals!” MinHo slapped WooJin’s arm as if it was his fault, and the poor exchange student draw back from the sudden attack, unsure of why was he the target of his friend’s aggression.

 

“We can share if you want,” the eldest’s eyebrows raised, resembling a puppy, while he rubbed the sore spot on his arm. MinHo’s eyes sparkled, hugging his hurt arm, and WooJin had to keep himself from flinching away. “Okay, let’s go order then.”

 

“Should we save WooJinnie?” SeungMin walked after them, with Felix, JiSung and JeongIn laughing next to him, not answering HyunJin’s question.

 

After they had all finished their meals, still sitting in one of the booths, MinHo showed his phone’s screen towards the rest of the boys that were chatting among themselves. It took them a minute to finally pay attention to their dancer friend (he actually had to sassily snap his fingers), blinking confused at the message displayed there. JeongIn had to lean a bit forward, eyes squinted to focus on the small letters, “What does it says?” he finally gave up, plopping back down.

 

“It says that the annual Halloween costume party thrown by the seniors is next week,” JiSung spoke, “and that everyone is practically invited. It’s going to be at one of those dudes’ that HyunJin has a crush on house.”

 

HyunJin choked on his soda, “You had to, right?” JiSung just made a squirrel face at him.

 

“Don’t tell me I’ll have to keep you alive with your head in a trash can again,” Chris piped in, to which HyunJin started laughing so hard tears rolled down his cheeks, he and ChangBin remembering how they took care of their drunk blonde friend back when he was a freshman. “I’m just sad we didn’t take pictures.”

 

“Does this mean I have to get myself a costume?” Felix looked at each of his friends.

 

“It means all of us have to,” SeungMin replied with his mouth full of french fries next to him. “More importantly, they have to be _provocative_ —”

 

“Slutty, Minnie. Just say slutty,” MinHo cut him off. “It’s part of the party, the sluttiest costume wins a shit ton of alcohol. It has to turn people on; though, it’s not only about showing skin.”

 

“You sound like you’re an expert,” WooJin side-eyed him.

 

“He won last year,” the Photography Major explained absent-mindedly, eyes glued to his camera screen, focused on trying to find something.

 

“You don’t have to dress up like that if you don’t want to,” Chris thought the same words, but they died on his tongue when ChangBin said them first at Felix’s awkward expression.

 

“ _Or_ you could just let me help you,” to their surprise, JeongIn winked at the Perth boy, flustering not only him but everyone else on the table. The youngest noticed all of their reactions, yet he opted not to say anything about it. “I’ll make sure our Perth boy here wins.”

 

Luckily, before any of them could open their mouths again, HyunJin exclaimed joyfully as he showed them the picture he was looking for, “ _Here!_ ” everyone gasped, even the ones who were at the party the year prior, at MinHo’s photo.

 

Being the diva he was, MinHo had sent to be made a version for himself of Beyoncé’s iconic outfit from the Single Ladies video. HyunJin had taken a photo of MinHo at the moment he was on the center of the dancer floor, legs spread as he leaned forward with a finger to his pink-tinted bottom lip, all soft curves and sexy eyes, and the honey blonde he used to have finishing the look, because it was supposed to be for a class project (needless to say, he could never bring himself to hand in such a picture of one of his best friends). Felix coughed a bit, leaning back on his seat after a few seconds, and Chris only took a long sip of his soda at the sound while the rest kept their gazes on the camera.

 

 MinHo’s cheeks turned red; still, he brushed it off as he broke the silence where all eyes were on his photo, “Stop eye-fucking me through my picture, losers,” he turned to JeongIn, who was one of the less affected ones. “The game is on, I don’t plan on handing over my crown to Felix. No matter how cute he is.”

 

~

That afternoon, Chris had the urge to go the ocean for a while before the sun had set entirely, so he asked SeungMin to pay him back a few hours the younger owed him. The last rays of sun were painting the clouds of orange, yellow, pink, with a greyish background. Sitting where the short waves barely licked his feet, Chris took his phone out to take a picture just as something broke the water’s surface; thus, he checked the photo to see a round shape. He was near the place where he last saw the seal, so he just assumed it was it again.

 

“Are you lost?” the question was directed to the animal, yet he barely whispered it. “Should I call an organization to rescue you?” sightseeing seals wasn’t unusual _at all_ for them, but the times where he had seen ones could be counted with one hand and had fingers to spare, so seeing two in less than a year was quite surprising for him. He was so absorbed in his own thoughts that he didn’t realize he was being watched from afar. A pair of soft black eyes stared at him a few feet from the shore, barely above the water’s surface, and he just tilted his head to the side. He wanted to come closer, maybe even touch it, but Chris stayed where he was, respecting the animal’s space. “Go back, you could get hurt here!” he shouted, using his hands to make a box around his mouth, as if the sea creature could somehow understand him.

 

 _It did_. Shocking Chris, the seal slowly dived back down, disappearing completely. The music composer was sure it was gone when he saw the tip of a tail splashing its way back into the deep ocean. He stood up, his feet sinking into the soft sand, and his eyes followed it until it was lost in the horizon.

 

The sea breeze started to kiss his face, so gently, that he felt like it was trying to tell him something.

 

~

 

“I don’t think I like this whole ordeal between JeongIn and MinHo when I’m _part_ of it,” Felix told Chris the next day they were able to walk to Chris’ coffee shop together.

 

Chris gave him an apologetic smile, “Sorry you got involved in the mess, Felix,” Felix shrugged with half a smile. “If it makes you feel better, it doesn’t get worse than that.”

 

“I hope you’re right,” they had arrived at the coffee shop, where SeungMin waved at them from inside, and he happily waved back. “Well, see you tomorrow.”

 

“Bye,” Chris’ eyes only left Felix when the blonde had walked two blocks away, and because SeungMin walked out to poke his ribs. “Hey!”

 

“You should really tell ChangBin that you like Felix too,” SeungMin rolled his eyes at his friend’s pointed look. “Seriously, Chris.”

 

“He called dibs on Felix,” Chris answered with a shrug. “Besides, they seem to be getting closer these days.”

 

“How old are you? ‘He called dibs’, Jesus fucking Christ,” the other part-time barista pinched the bridge of his nose as they entered their workplace. “Christopher, I honestly think Felix likes you.”

 

“Min, stop,” Chris’ tone was more than serious, there was no space for SeungMin to say something back. “My best friend likes him. I want him to be happy.”

 

“Have you thought what might make Felix happy?” SeungMin was getting angry, a way to release some of the frustration he was feeling over the situation. “Felix is also our friend now.”

 

Chris seemed to be taken aback by SeungMin’s words, staying in silence as he put on his apron. SeungMin did the same, finally moving closer, before a few costumers came in. They worked in silence, which was filled by the costumers’ voices and a soft Day6 song which Chris picked as a quiet apology for snapping at SeungMin earlier. As soon as they were done, the coffee shop cleaned, the cash closing done, and the doors well-locked, the two walked to the light train stop.

 

“I’ll see what happens at the party, alright?” Chris gave an unsure lopsided smile at the younger.

 

“Good,” the languages student smiled back. “By the way, do you have your costume already?”

 

“I don’t know, I think I’ll just re-use last year’s,” SeungMin judged him so strongly with just his eyes that he lowered his own. “Or not…?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Has anyone actually liked this so far though?


	3. III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sleepy, as always, but I wanted to update. I'll check it tomorrow.
> 
> Also, my exam period is coming up so I don't know when I'll be able to update again.

 

“Unbelievable is that WooJin is the only foreign and _the one with a license_ ,” MinHo declared as they (Chris, ChangBin, HyunJin, and JiSung) stepped into _MinHo’s_ car.

 

“Says the owner of the car not driving it,” JiSung remarked, eyes so big he resembled the eyes emoji.

 

“I failed the test twice,” MinHo glared at JiSung from the rear-mirror, “so you should be thankful WooJinnie’s driving us.”

 

“I asked if you guys wanted me to drive though?” Chris reminded them with a hand in the air. “Since I also have a license.”

 

“Yes, but no one wants to end up in a random beach,” HyunJin hushed him with a finger to his lips. “The party is already by the beach, so you can be grateful too.”

 

“Can you keep it down for a while? At least until we get there?” WooJin requested once he had checked everything, and turned on the engine to take the road. Since the owner of the house was an acquaintance of MinHo from his dance competitions, he’d work as their GPS.

 

ChangBin had been awfully quiet for his usual behavior, so Chris turned to find him sadly looking at his lockscreen photo of a sleeping Felix. The Australian felt like he was intruding, for some reason, but still pushed his friend’s head softly to catch his attention, “What’s wrong, Binnie?” he asked under his breath, to keep HyunJin from eavesdropping on them.

 

“I’m waiting for Felix to answer my text,” Chris tilted his head to the side, confused. “I wasn’t ready to ask him out yet, so I stupidly asked if he’d like to hang out during the party.”

 

“What did he say?” Chris patted his friend’s shoulder as a way to calm his own uneasiness.

 

“He left me on read.”

 

“ _Oh._ ”

 

Chris was unsure of what to say or if he was supposed to say something; he had never seen ChangBin looking so sad over a boy in all the years they had known each other, so the rest of the ride was made in silence, which wasn’t very long, like 15 minutes tops from HyunJin’s aparment. “We’re here!” WooJin broke the slight tense atmosphere when they finally parked in front of the house.

 

“Why did we even drive here?” ChangBin rolled his eyes, but soon regretted it when MinHo sent him a death glare.

 

“I was _not_ walking all the way here wearing _this_ ,” the rest of the boys in the car still wondered what “this” was as none had seen MinHo’s costume yet. The dancer had kept it a secret underneath a trench-coat WooJin had lent him.

 

“Oh, wow,” HyunJin’s tone could’ve been mistaken as sarcastic, but that was his way of speaking. “Chris, you actually look like you put some effort this year.”

 

“That’s because Minnie put the effort,” the Australian explained as he opened his long black velvet coat (which SeungMin burrowed from MinHo’s outfits for performing). His co-worker had nagged him into wearing one white almost-see-through shirt (also MinHo’s) dress shirt, the buttons undone all the way to the middle of his chest, and a pair of skin-tight leather pants. Chris felt a bit too exposed, making him a bit self-conscious of how pale his skin was, until he heard WooJin’s laugh at his expression. “What are you supposed to be anyway?”

 

“He’s a hot biker, that’s obvious,” the dancer cut in, as usual, motioning at WooJin’s leather jacket, ripped jeans, and sunglasses in the middle of the night. “Are we going to stand here all night?”

 

“We’re waiting for JeongInnie and the others,” WooJin mentioned as he stared at his phone and then at the end of the street looking for someone.

 

“But JeongInnie is already inside?” HyunJin answered as he checked his camera’s settings for low light.

 

“Why didn’t you tell us before?!” MinHo started to walk into the house, being careful of not stomping because a soft clicking noise brought everyone’s attention down to his heel-wearing feet.

 

 SeungMin’s voice was the only thing that broke the others out of their shock, “Hey, you guys okay?” he frowned and followed their eyes, scoffing a bit. “… And I thought making Chris wear eyeliner was _too much_.”

 

“My eyes still sting,” Chris whined a bit. “… You made me dress like this when you don’t even have a costume? Didn’t you wear that last week?”

 

“There’s nothing more attractive than an innocent school boy, excuse you?” SeungMin put his hand to his chest, acting offended. “At least I’m not a lesbian or a basic bitch.”

 

“I’m a sexy lumberjack, for your information!” JiSung placed his hand on ChangBin’s shoulder. “And he _is_ a basic bitch, but today he dressed-up as the first gay prince.”

 

“This is exactly why you’re single, JiSung,” ChangBin glared at his friend.

 

“What are you waiting for, losers?!” MinHo shouted from the entranceway. “Felix is the one you should be worrying about,” he added once they all entered the place, and WooJin could only roll his eyes. Chris had to cover his mouth to hide his cackle.

 

It took them exactly five minutes to spot JeongIn, for he was wearing bright red pants hanging from his hips, to which all of them had the urge to hide from everyone’s eyes. The rest of his look only consisted of a white tank top, a pair of suspenders, and an opened matching red firefighter jacket. They only saw him first because Felix was behind. ChangBin gasped out loud; Chris had to bite back his tongue when Felix blushed all the way to his ears once he saw them.

 

“No!” he cried and used JeongIn as a human shield, “Don’t!

But it was too late. The image of Felix wearing a mermaid costume was engraved in their memories. Chris tried to say something when ChangBin stepped in front of them, “You look gorgeous, Felix!” they kind of had to scream to hear each other over the loud music booming through the house, so all of them were a bit taken aback when the Korean’s voice was more than clear over the noise.  Felix’s eyes grew so big, showing a bit from the sparkling eyeshadow on them, before ChangBin spoke again, much softer this time, “I mean… JeongIn did a great job. You might even win this year!”

 

“Uh…” Felix gave him a shy smile just as MinHo walked to stand by his side, pushing JeongIn aside in playful manner.

 

“You haven’t even seen my costume!” the dancer announced with a quirked eyebrow; at the same time, HyunJin saw WooJin roll his eyes again as he moved to get something to drink.

 

“If you’re not wearing anything underneath that coat, I swear to—” JeongIn’s sentence was cut short by MinHo sliding the garnet off. Even Felix, who had been hiding, leaned to the side to stare at the Visual and Performing Arts Major. JiSung had appeared with WooJing dragged under his arm, but before he could greet his friends, MinHo had begun his act. Chris almost took off his own coat to cover his friend up again since MinHo looked _ravishing_. In all of their minds, none of them could deny it, Girls’ Day should’ve been thanking him for the tribute he was doing to their “Something” outfit: the black shimmering fabric that he chose hugged his body just right, showing the curves carved from nature and long hours of practice, and the side slit of the skirt displayed enough skin of a milky white thigh that led down to a pair of metallic red stilettos. The Music Composer coughed and looked away, finding Felix with whom he shared short stare, before both lowered their gazes. WooJin caught as sight of that, yet only slapped the back of JiSung’s head after the younger licked his lips without taking his eyes off of MinHo.

 

“I surrender!” Felix raised his hands once everyone seemed to recover their ability to speak.

 

“You’re not allowed to do that!” JeongIn pointed at him and pulled his hand down. “The contest hasn’t even started yet!”

 

Needing some space from his friends’ antics, Chris looked for the alcohol table, that he soon found in a room next to the improvised dancefloor. He had never been happier to see the mess of red plastic cups, half bottles, chip leftovers, and a bucket of ice. Without wasting time, he took a cup to pour himself more than half of it in Tequila and what was left in coke and ice. A hand on his shoulder startled him, almost making him drop his drink.

 

“What the—?” he turned to find Felix, and the Perth boy looked much better when he wasn’t covering himself with JeongIn’s body. “Oh, Felix, where the others?”

 

The music was much louder there, so Felix had to lean into his ear, his lips brushing against the skin, “What?!”

 

“The others!” Chris repeated, way too aware of their new proximity.

 

“Dancefloor!” turning their heads, they found their friends creating a wreck on the floor as Jisung was glaring at everyone who tried to get too close to MinHo, mostly because WooJin was too busy keeping girls from giving JeongIn alcohol, and the other three were excitedly doing a round of shots with a bunch of strangers.

 

“I’m stepping out for a bit,” Chris nodded and tilted his head, so Felix would go first.

 

Finding a back door unlocked, in the kitchen filled with couples, they walked out to the private access to the sea the house had. As expected, no one had wanted to see the sea when they lived in an island. The noises were drowned by the sound of the strong wind of the end of October once they reached the shore, and Felix quickly got rid of the annoying shoes (that JeongIn forced him to use) to run straight for the water. Chris let out a soft laugh and copied his actions.

 

“The sea is so pretty.” Chris looked at Felix. “What?”

 

“Nothing, it’s just… since people are so used to it, they usually don’t care,” Felix shrugged, dipping his toes into the cold sand, then went on, “but I love it.”

 

“They’re stupid.” the younger Australian chuckled and rubbed his shoulders when a strong breeze hit them, but soon felt a heavy fabric laid upon them. “Won’t you get cold?”

 

“I grew up here, next to it, so I’m used to it. Don’t worry,” Chris reassured him with a smile; then, they both stared at the reflected moonlight on the water. “You look… good,” he wasn’t sure how would Felix take the compliment, so he used a neutral adjective.

 

Out of reflex, the Perth boy looked down at his outfit (picked and done by JeongIn): a iridescent metallic fabric covered the length of his legs, except for a slit on both sides that peaked at a pair of lapislazuli shorts, high-neck rainbow-colored mesh shirt with a lapislazuli crop top underneath, and his hair had been dyed platinum. A waterfall braid adorned the opposite of his long bangs, and it was topped with small starfishes, pearls, and flowers. Though the clothes were covered by Chris’ coat, Felix avoided his stare and tried to brush off the heat on his cheeks by rolling his eyes, “Thanks… I still think that MinHo looks… _sluttier_?”

 

“MinHo’s a slut on his own, he should actually chang his name to Min _Hoe_ ,” Felix laughed loudly, slapping Chris’ arm softly. “In fact, I’ll change his name on my phone.”

 

“I’ll tell him,” Felix threatened with a smile.

 

“If?” Chris was waiting for the boy to finish that idea.

 

“Nothing, I’ll tell him so he’ll flirt with you even more.”

 

“Flirt with me?” the older Australian furrowed his brows in confusing; he liked to think he was actually on the few that MinHo respected.

 

“Like that day at my place?” Felix explained, tilting his head towards the water.

 

“Oh,” the Music Composer faintly remembered the exchange he had with MinHo about ChangBin. “It’s really _not_ like that…”

 

“I think everyone has a thing for MinHo.”

 

Standing there, by the ocean, the moon shining down on them, Felix looked too beautiful to be real. Almost like he complemented his surroundings instead of looking like an intruder, the way Chris did. His skin glowed, as if made of porcelain, and the way he stared at the crashing waves reminded the older of the way he always longed after them whenever he travelled too far from them. Chris came closer to Felix, for the first time since they met, and fixed the coat that had slipped from his shoulders, as he mumbled a soft: “ _I_ _don’t_.”

 

Felix looked up at him, slight surprise in his eyes, and his freckled cheeks flared up. They weren’t what you would call “kissing close”, yet Chris knew he could lean forward and break into Felix’s personal space, he knew he could grab Felix’s heated face and pull him in, he knew he could just ignore the voice at the back of his head saying ChangBin’s name and just kiss him if only Felix wanted the same thing. Felix’s lips parted, in a silent plea, for something Chris could only understand once his attention was on his words and not the way his mouth moved when he spoke. “Chris…” Felix’s voice could make such a common name as his own sound so special.

 

“Felix, I…” the younger was the one who took a step in his direction, the one who took his face between cold hands, and the one who leaned forward so their faces were kissing close. “Do you…?” The Perth boy’s eyes were brighter than the small glittery strasses on his temples, and the smile that curved his red-tinted lips was so dazzling that Chris had to hold his breath for a second.

 

So much for a verbal answer, good thing Chris was good at reading notes.

 

Felix still had his hands on Chris’ face, and Chris had circled the younger’s waist, but before their lips could even graze each other: a voice pulled them apart in a second. Felix whipped his head to find JeongIn and MinHo a few feet from them on top of a small dune.

 

“Oi! Guys! The contest’s about to start!” the youngest waved his arms while MinHo hanged from his neck, complaining about how he was going to kill the Law Major for making him walk in sand with heels.

 

Chris took a breath and Felix sighed out in relief, after that, they nodded, making their way back with their friends.

 

~

 

“Where’s ChangBin?” Chris asked as they found a good spot to see the show. It only consisted of the contestants walking to the middle of the dancefloor to show off their costume, or lack of, and the winner was picked by the audience.

 

“He said he need some air after downing four shots about twenty minutes ago,” WooJin answered, concern laced in his voice, quickly tugging on JeongIn’s arm to place the boy in front of him. “Should we look for him?”

 

“I’ll go,” JiSung asked the Australian if he wanted help. “No, it’s fine. Text me when it’s their turn,” SeungMin gave him thumbs up and watched his friend disappear in the crowd.

 

“I have a bad feeling about this,” HyunJin thought out loud, fixing his kitten ears, but no one paid attention.

 

Finally, after a good ten minutes, Chris came back with his best friend hugging his arm. JiSung laughed at ChangBin’s obvious drunken state; however, he found a chair for the Music Performer so he could sit. Chris had left him to get his friend a glass of water; luckily, he came back in time to see MinHo owning the stage. He had to purse his lips in order to keep himself from laughing at the way WooJin pretended not to stare at their dancer friend’s movements. Felix came up next, the opposite to MinHo, and had everyone gawking for the same reason; the natural beauty from the Perth boy was stunning. Felix felt overwhelmed by the amount of attention he was getting, and when he was about to move back, their eyes met. Chris nodded with a reassuring smile; in that moment, Felix confidently took off his coat.

 

Everyone cheered. Felix laughed, Chris clapped, and ChangBin ran for the sink to throw up.

 

~

 

“I think you should let ChangBin sleep here tonight, he’s already passed out on my bed,” HyunJin said coming out of his room without the black silk clothes wore as a kitten costume. “I don’t think he can throw up anymore. Hopefully.”

 

“Yeah, hopefully. MinHo was about to kill him when he puked in his car,” JeongIn took off his jacket, throwing it over the couch’s back. “You two can stay too.”

 

“Thanks, but I want to take a shower to clean this shit off,” Chris tried to point at the eyeliner in his eyes.

 

“And I have to drive all of them back home,” WooJin patted JeongIn’s head. “We’ll see you on Monday.”

 

“You sure you’ll be okay with ChangBin?” HyunJin nodded at Chris again. “Okay, if anything happens, call us.”

 

“Text us when you get home,” Felix added as he walked in with a plain t-shirt and sweats, makeup still untouched on his face. Chris sent him a smile, and he looked at JeongIn who only made it worse by wiggling his eyebrows at him. “Okay, night!” the blonde almost pushed both boys out the door.

~

 

Time and money were always short for student in college. A week went by after the party, and just like before, there was no way the nine of them could get organized for something. Of course, the housemates saw each other at the end of the day, but that didn’t mean they had time to talk when middle-term projects were starting to weight on their shoulders. Chris had received a mail from a program in Korea he had applied at the beginning of their term, stating that his application form was accepted and he had to send in a project by the end of the year. If he thought he had been busy before, with the classes and part-time job, at least three of his friends thought he was dead when he didn’t answer to any of the messages in the group chat or private conversations. WooJin had to wake him up on more than one occasion because he’d have missed too many lectures otherwise. MinHo came by his coffee shop one afternoon to get some hot cocoa and asked him if he had talked to Felix at all a week later.

 

“We’ve been texting, right, SeungMin?” his co-worker nodded, busy with an espresso and three americanos order in process. “I haven’t had much time to meet with him, neither does he as far I know.”

 

“Has he told you why?” MinHo rested his elbows on the counter as he saw SeungMin give the order to the costumer.

 

“I mean, we’re all busy with our mid-term projects,” Chris walked to gather the washed cups to finish cleaning them with a dry cloth. “Have you seen JeongIn? I think he hasn’t slept in two weeks.”

 

“JeongIn hasn’t sleep in more than a month, Chris,” SeungMin piped from his place polishing the Pavoni Coffee Machine’s mirror parts. “HyunJin told me he actually hides from him lately.”

 

“It can’t be that bad,” Chris and SeungMin started a mini discussion over how difficult their youngest’s major was.

 

“Okay!” MinHo snapped his fingers. “Back to Felix, Chris… I think you should see him. Whatever happened, or whatever JeongIn and I saw, at the party, you need to figure it out. You can’t keep on pretending it never happened, and avoiding Felix, because ChangBin might get hurt.”

 

“He _will_ get hurt, MinHo,” Chris saw the way his two friends exhaled frustrated. “Nothing happened.”

 

“You guys like each other, it’s _painfully_ obvious. You know it, he knows it,” the dancer took a long sip of his drink. “Why do you keep giving him the run-around? He asked WooJin if he did something wrong because you don’t walk back together anymore.”

 

“I don’t want to do this to my best friend…”

 

“But you’re willing to do that to Felix?” SeungMin didn’t mean to sound so angry, but MinHo backed him up.

 

“I think you should just tell ChangBin, because Felix doesn’t deserve this,” Chris looked at MinHo, the black-haired boy had a soft expression, his eyes gentle, as if trying to persuade him; then, he turned to find the other end in SeungMin’s hard expression, sharp eyes demanding him to do the right thing. “Chris, ChangBin is your best friend, he will understand. He wants you to be happy as much as you want him to be happy.”

 

“I’ll talk to Felix,” Chris sighed deeply. “And ChangBin soon, I promise.”

 

“Don’t say we didn’t warn you,” MinHo bid goodbye to SeungMin, ignoring Chris’.

 

~

Chris knew he had to talk to Felix, but it was so hard when his best friend arrived at their apartment looking like shit the morning after the party. He had taken care of ChangBin with WooJin’s help, but there was something different about him. They blamed it on hang-over, and the fact that none of them had slept for more than four hours. Neither of them had really talked during that time, both claiming to be working on their projects and assignments, even 3RACHA was on hiatus as JiSung couldn’t really get a hold of them.

 

So, the Music Composer did what he did best, hide away by the sea. He had bribed SeungMin into covering his shift with letting him be on the cashier the whole week instead of making the drinks. Hugging himself, Chris walked along the shore, his nose scrunching up a bit whenever a shell would prick the sole of his feet, but he couldn’t quite feel at ease as usual. The sea seemed distressed. The waves were violent, the water was murky, and the clouds were dark. Raining season was over, so it took him by surprise when a downpour fell on him out of nowhere. Chris ran to hide under a lifeguard tower nearby, holding onto one of the boards. For some reason, his eyes looked around the horizon, and despite realizing that there was no sea creature around that time, Chris still felt an uneasiness in his heart.

 

 

~

 

Eventually, Chris found himself able to breathe from all his responsibilities one morning as he tried to take a well-deserved nap in the library next to an already sleeping JeongIn. The poor baby of the group was exhausted from pulling all-nighters on reading international unsolved fraud cases, so Chris decided to keep him some company. Not 10 minutes into their slumber, a book was slammed between them, and both screamed so hard they were almost thrown out of the place.

 

“Fuck—!”

 

JeongIn, with all his undereye bags and tiredness, glared at the source of their disruption, “What the _fuck_ is wrong with you, dumb slut?” Chris was so shocked at JeongIn’s aggressive tone. “I’m so fucking done with your shit—”

 

“JeongIn, _chill_ ,” Chris softly pulled the youngest down by the shoulders, massaging them. “What, JiSung?”

“I guess you don’t know, huh?” JiSung’s eyes couldn’t hide the wariness he was trying hard to hide. “ChangBin’s looking for us, let’s go.”

Even JeongIn’s mood changed at JiSung’s soft tone, and the Law Major grew worried by the second. Chris silently followed them, texting MinHo if he knew what was going on. ChangBin hadn’t told him anything, _he_ was his best friend, he was supposed to know any kind of bad or good thing before anyone else, so why was he being retrieved by JiSung? WooJin was the one who texted him back, not MinHo, saying that he only knew that ChangBin wanted to make an announcement. JeongIn was pressed closed to Chris’ side, and Chris could only drape an arm around him to calm him down. All of them needed to rest because it was probably something stupid, not half as dramatic as JiSung was behaving.

“Hey,” ChangBin smiled so big at them, once they were all sitting in a corner of the cafeteria, that even WooJin had cough a bit.  “Listen, guys, I gathered you all here because I, _well_ , we…” he turned to Felix, who smiled at him, “wanted to let you know we’re dating!”

“ _What_?” JeongIn snapped, and SeungMin immediately pulled him into a tight hug, whispering something to his ear. “Okay, sorry, I couldn’t catch it.”

“We’re dating,” ChangBin repeated, as if he couldn’t sense the awkwardness coming from all his friends.

“Really?” WooJin smiled, though it somehow didn’t reach his eyes. “I’m so happy for you, we all are,” the Comparative Major turned to the Performing Arts Major, “right, boys?”

“ _Ah_ ,” SeungMin clapped, trying not to look at Chris. “Yes. We are, all of us.”

“Thanks,” Felix finally spoke, a small smile on his lips, and his hand reached over the table to grab ChangBin’s. “I’m relieved to have your approval.”

“Of course, Felix,” MinHo gave the Perth boy a warm smile, “why wouldn’t we?”

No one dared to look at Chris except for HyunJin. The Photography Major quietly leaned against the Music Composer, suddenly breaking into a huge grin, “We should celebrate!” his hand found Chris’ clenched fist under the table, and kept a tight grip on it.

“Yes, congratulations!” Chris’ excited voice took them all aback. “We should definitely go somewhere,” JeongIn and JiSung nodded in agreement.

“We could have a weekend escapade, how about that?” ChangBin suggested, intertwining his fingers with Felix’s.

“ _Yeah_.”

“We have to go, but we can meet later to talk about it,” the couple waved their hands at them, and the seven boys stayed in silence.

SeungMin, JiSung and JeongIn looked at each other, unsure of what else to do.

WooJin and MinHo were almost cuddling, thinking of what to say.

HyunJin and Chris kept their hands together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "This is so great! Alexa, play Congratulations by Day6!" what Chris meant to say.


	4. IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just before my exams week!
> 
> I didn't have time to check the last chapter, but as soon as I do, I'll beta read it, promise.
> 
> This one is also unbeta-ed. Sorry... but I hope you like it!

 

“Chris?”

 

“Chris?”

 

“Christopher!” SeungMin pulled Chris’ hand from the overflowing with boiling water metal pitcher. The Linguistics Major dragged his friend to the sink, quickly putting the older’s hand under cold water. “What’s going on with you?” he asked as he closed the hot water tap on the coffee machine.

 

“Sorry, I was just thinking of… the project I need to finish,” Chris scrunche up his nose when the pain finally kicked in. “I’m applying for a scholarship.”

 

“I know, you told me months ago, but you’ve never been so out of it at work.” SeungMin finished the order Chris was trying to make, which was JiSung’s drink. The Music Performer could only shake his head and thank the barista after receiving his coffee. “Luckily, exam week is over too, so you can take a breath for now.”

 

“Isn’t he like… _that_ ever since ChangBin and Felix announced their relationship?” MinHo rolled his eyes at JiSung’s whisper and brought his frappucino to his lips. Chris was spacing out again, so he showed no reaction whatsoever while the other two sighed deeply. SeungMin only shook his head, walking with handful of orders.

 

“WooJin said he’d come, where is he?”

 

“Jesus, MinHo, just date him already,” JiSung moved away to avoid the dancer’s punch to his arm. A hand placed on his shoulder made him squeak before he looked back to find WooJin with a raised eyebrow. “WooJinnie!”

 

MinHo scoffed, “What took you so long?”

 

“I stayed late working on a project with Felix and…” he suddenly pointed at Chris. “Is _he_ okay _…_?”

 

“Careful, Chris, that’s—!” SeungMin was too late because the Australian had already taken out from the oven a tray of just-made cookies.

 

“It’s fine, Minnie, the cookies are ready to be packed,” Chris set the tray down on the counter as if his hands weren’t angry red from the scorching metal.

 

“We _have_ to do something,” MinHo announced after Chris had left to the backroom, looking for the cookies’ bags, and the rest of the boys silently nodded.

 

~

 

“HyunJinnie, is there something wrong?” Chris asked, moving one of his bandaged hands to the younger’s. HyunJin had been sitting next to him on the cafeteria, working on some ideas for his Portrait Class when he let his head fall onto the table in front of him. “HyunJin?”

“Chris… why are you pretending to be okay with it?” the Photography Major turned his head to the side to face the older.

 

“It? What do you mean?”

 

“Christopher, stop playing stupid.”

 

With a short sigh, Chris brushed HyunJin’s black bangs away from his eyes, “Because they’re happy, Jinnie.”

 

“Are they? Have you talked to Felix ever since they got together? Have you walked back together the way you used to? Has he even looked your way?” HyunJin straightened up on his seat. “It’s like he can’t be without ChangBin for a second.”

 

“Well, they just began dating, that’s normal,” Chris shrugged. “Remember back when SeungMin was smitten with that exchange girl from Latin America?”

 

“I still feel like it’s different… I don’t know, Chris, there’s something weird about that relationship.”

 

~

 

“Felix, hey!” the two Australians ran into each other at the library two weeks later. The older was unsure of how to react, there was still a pang in his chest, but the younger was still his friend. “How you’ve been?”

 

“Chris, hi,” Felix voice sounded much softer. “I’ve been good,” he smiled gently, “and you?”

 

“Yeah, a bit busy with projects and stuff,” Chris explained with a pout. “Have you eaten? Do you want to grab something from the cafeteria?”

 

“Oh, I…” he looked around, in a way that made it seem like he was being watched, and then nodded. “Sure.”

 

The two walked across campus to the cafeteria, catching up on everything, both forgetting for a second of the events from the previous weeks. Felix laughed at Chris’ bad jokes and Chris gave Felix his Tim Tam after he lost on Rock, Paper, Scissors. Everything was okay until Chris asked him about his relationship with ChangBin.

 

“It’s great, I love him,” they had been together for less than a month; therefore, the confession took Chris by surprise. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, it just… kind of happened,” Felix’s eyes unfocused for a second, lost in his thoughts.

 

“It’s fine, I’m glad you’re both happy,” Chris said whole-heartedly, and Felix just stared at him. The Literature Major looked like he wanted to say something, but he only took a deep breath. “If ChangBin ever does something, you can tell me and I’ll kick his ass.”

 

Felix chuckled, “Thanks, Chris…”

 

“Lixie?” Felix jumped up at ChangBin’s voice. Chris greeted his friend with a wave. “Hi, Chris. I thought you had class right now.”

 

“Oh, it got cancelled,” Chris slowly collected his things, seeing the way ChangBin drapped his arm over Felix’s shoulder. “Though, I was supposed to meet with JiSung. I’ll see you guys later?”

 

“Yep,” ChangBin nodded and pressed a kiss to the corner of Felix’s mouth.

 

Chris took off before he could see more.

 

Felix smiled, but his eyes followed Chris.

 

~

Taking advantage of their only holiday on November, Chris spent his day at the beach. He meant to ask the rest of his friends if they wanted to tag along, but he decided against it in the end. He had missed the ocean, and feeling a bit ashamed of his selfish thoughts, so he wanted it for himself. Chris had missed the sea breeze on his face, the sand between his toes, and the sound of the waves crashing against each other.

 

Walking along the shore, Chris constantly looked over the horizon, unconsciously looking for something. He was almost at the place where he had seen the first sea; however, he knew that coming across it again was impossible. Still, Chris was shocked to find someone else there when everyone else was at home watching the race.

 

“ _Felix_?”

 

The freckled boy was shocked to see him there, and Chris rushed to him when he saw the unshed tears in his eyes. “Chris,” he took a step back. “I thought you’d be watching the race.”

 

“I’m not very much into that,” Chris explained, respecting the younger’s space. “Are you okay?”

 

“Yeah, I’m just a bit… _homesick_ ,” the Perth boy admitted.

 

“Why didn’t you… travel to Perth for the long weekend?” the Music Composer turned towards the water, and frowned at the way the waves seemed to move slower than they were a few minutes before. “I know it’s a long trip for three days…”

 

“Yeah, I just…” Felix hugged himself and smiled sadly towards the water too. “I can’t, not right now.”

 

“Why?” Chris saw the way Felix’s eyes filled with tears again. “I’m—!”

 

“I… don’t want to leave ChangBin.”

 

“I get it,” Chris nodded, but something made him smile. “Oh, look… a seal,” Felix’s eyes widened in shock at the sight of the sea creature peeking its head above the surface.

 

“It’s _beautiful_ ,” the two admired the seal until it dived back down. “They’re magical…”

“I know, right?” for the first time, Chris felt like someone was able to understand his love for the sea and its creatures; however, he remembered where their conversation was left off, “Ah,” both stayed silent for a minute, listening to the sound of the sea. “Well… Christmas is near, so maybe then you can go to Perth soon, with ChangBin too.”

 

“Chris, you…” Felix raised both hands towards Chris; on the other hand, Chris stared expectantly at him just as the younger’s phone went off. Taking it out, ChangBin’s name showed on the screen, and Felix quickly picked up. “Hey, Binnie?” Chris stared at Felix while he spoke with his _boyfriend_ , admiring the small details of the boy, like the way his eyelashes brushed his cheeks, the movement of his mouth as he talked, even the way he scrunched up his nose whenever he heard something unpleasant; all of these details, Chris wondered, were noticed by ChangBin too? Were they the reason he wanted Felix so badly? Would ChangBin feel as happy as Chris did by being near, both, Felix and the sea at the same time? “Sorry, I’ve got to go…”

 

“It’s okay, be careful on your way back, yeah?”

 

“I will.”

 

Chris waved Felix goodbye, and the sky over the waves turned a bit darker. Could the ocean feel sad too? “Is this a consequence of climate change?” the Music Composer wondered out loud.

 

~

 

“I’m telling you, JeongIn, it’s like Felix is _compelled_ to love him!”

 

“MinHo,” the Law Major closed his notebooks with his nose pinched between his index and thumb, “I know you wanted Felix and Chris to be together, but you’re just being dramatic.”

 

“I swear!”

 

“Guys, keep it down,” SeungMin hushed them. “We’re in the library.”

 

“We know,” MinHo’s sassy remark just made the two youngers roll their eyes. “HyunJin, back me up.”

 

“Look, MinHo, maybe they actually like each other,” HyunJin set down his camera. “Give them the benefit of the doubt.”

 

“They’ve been dating for a _month_!”

 

“That’s it, I’m calling WooJin,” JiSung pulled his phone out, threatening MinHo with it, and the older played along with him by hissing like a cat. “By the way, has anyone seen Chris?”

 

“He’s been spending all his spare time at the beach.”

 

“Oh, dear, he’s seriously broken-hearted.”

 

~

 

After he had closed down the coffee shop on his own (because he owed SeungMin a shift), Chris left rather late to take the light train, so he opted to take the way back by the shore. He walked with his shoes in one hand, absent-mindedly kicking the sand, until a splash that didn’t come from the waves licking the sand grabbed his attention. The water seemed to calm down, all of a sudden, and he was able to see a round silhouette emerging from under: a seal. The creature started to swim around, instead of going away, as if it was calling him over. He followed it to a group of rocks that led to the sea, but then it disappeared.

 

“I’m seriously starting to imagine things…” he trailed off when he spotted the seal and climbed on the rocks after it laid on one of the larger ones. Chris stepped carefully on them, as if he was being pulled towards the creature. The Music Composer stopped to watch the animal, a bit afraid of scaring it away, but he let out a gasp at the sight of the creature slowly taking off _something_. Chris’ eyes widened as he stared at what looked like a coat, _fur_ being left aside, and the curvy outlined turned into a slim one, a _human_ one. A pair of eyes bore into Chris’ but before he could even scream, a strong wind made him lose his balance, slipping on the wet surface and falling right into the restless ocean.

 

Chris had a strange sense of déjà vu after he saw the sky from under the water, the weak rays of moonlight reflected in his eyes, and a memory long forgotten flashed through his eyes. Freckles and small hands. He knew how to swim; still, he found it hard to do so. It’d be useless to try to get to the surface with the way the current was pulling him deeper. Chris had accepted his faith this time, it really wasn’t like he had much to lose. Dying by the hands of the sea would like Juliette killing herself with Romeo’s sword. Chris couldn’t recall a time when he wasn’t in love with the sea… at least until he met Felix. Close to letting his eyelids drop for the final time, something grabbed his hands, quickly hauling him back up; blinking once more, he was laying on the sand, safe.

 

“Christopher,” a strong voice called him, and he could only move his gaze up to find someone he knew well.

 

“WooJin?”

 

“Chris, are you okay? Oh my God, I saw your body washed up here, what the fuck happened?”

 

“I saw a seal…”

 

“A seal? Are you high?” the Literature Major helped his friend into a sitting position. “Jesus Christ, Chris, I’m not letting you come here alone again. Good thing JiSung told me you’d be here.”

 

“WooJin?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“What was your major again?” WooJin looked confused at his friend.

 

~

 

MinHo could be eccentric, but he was also very motherly. As soon as he heard what had happened to Chris, the dancer practically forbade him (with WooJin’s help) from going to the shore on his own. It didn’t really affect them as Chris stayed in the library long after their lectures were over and bringing a lot of books to the coffee shop, sometimes accompanied by any of the younger boys to keep him company. MinHo texted them that he’d be absent for the weekend, as he had a competition in Newcastle, so he explicitly said to check on Chris while he was gone.

 

“Please, tell your boyfriend I’m wasn’t and I’m not planning on killing myself,” Chris said and rolled his eyes at the text.

 

“We’re not dating though?” WooJin pushed another pile of books aside and groaned softly, trying to be quiet as they were in the Library on one of their breaks. “You know? This isn’t my major, you should’ve gone to the person who’s actually majoring in Mythology.”

 

“I cannot ask Felix about this.”

 

“Why? He’s an expert in folklore,” WooJin frowned, taking another compilation of Australian legends from Chris’ hands. “He could help.”

 

“I don’t want anyone else knowing about this,” Chris took a deep breath and his shoulders fell in defeat at WooJin’s stare. “My grandfather used to take me there, to the beach, back when I was eight. He was the only one who understood my love for the water.”

 

“Okay?” the eldest leaned forward and crossed both arms over the table, resting on them. “Go on.”

 

“One time… I was playing by the rocks, as usual, but Grandpa had gone to get something from the car. He told me to stay close on the ones close to the shore, and I did… until I saw a _seal_ ,” Chris’ eyes were looking at WooJin, but his mind was somewhere else, in a different time. “I wanted to touch it, I felt pulled towards it, so I jumped on the rocks almost all the way ‘till they ended…” the Australian felt better at the Korean’s reassuring smile. “I was so close to the seal, WooJin, if I had reached a bit more…”

 

“Why didn’t you?” WooJin seemed to remember something, so he signaled Chris to go on as he rushed to grab one of the Australian Folklore compilations he saw Felix used for one of his research papers.

 

Chris watched as his friend went back and forth in the shelves of the Mythology section, “I couldn’t, though part of me wanted to, I knew that I shouldn’t. My grandpa taught me to respect the sea and its creatures. Then… I got so distracted I took a misstep and fell into the water.”

 

“Just like that day? Mate, you should’ve known better,” WooJin snapped his fingers and moved to the top part of a shelf to take out a thick book covered in red leather. He placed it down in front of him, quickly skimming through the pages. “What happened next?”

 

“I don’t remember much of my time under water,” Chris stopped for a minute, as flashes of _something_ taking hold of his hands. “but I remember my grandpa’s words when I woke up with him next to me, apparently, the waves had brought me back to the shore, and he said… that my love was probably corresponded.”

 

“I found it!” WooJin made a face when a pair of students shushed him. “Here,” he whispered and pointed a picture on the page. Chris leaned over to look at it, he had to keep himself from gasping too loud at how much it resembled what he had seen that afternoon at the beach: a human, sitting on a rock by the ocean, with seal skin falling off their shoulders.

 

_Selkies._

_“The mythology of selkies is similar to that of the Japanese swan maidens, though historically it appears that the tales of the swan maidens predate the western tradition. Selkies can be either men or women, but are seals while in the water. What differentiates them from mermaids (aside from the choice of animal) is that they undergo a full body transformation upon coming to shore: they do not merely transform seal tails into human legs, but rather completely shapeshift from the sea animals into a human. This is accomplished by shedding their seal-skin when they come to land. Selkies are predominately mythological creatures from Irish, Scottish (particularly in Orkney and the Shetland Islands) and Faroese folklore, however there is a similar tradition in Iceland as well._

“Selkies?” WooJin nodded. “I think there’s a movie called like that?” the exchange student deadpanned.

 

“Seriously…” he pushed Chris back with a finger to his forehead. “Chris, you keep mentioning seals, and I remembered this because I saw Felix reading about it the other day.”

 

“WooJin, why are helping me?

 

WooJin’s eyes softened, “Because this kind of dedication comes from someone in love,” he winked at Chris. “Also… what other stories would I tell my friends back home after I go back to Korea?” the Music Composer rolled his eyes with a smile. “But Chris… now that you found what you think you saw, what’s your plan?”

 

“I don’t know yet,” the younger of the two checked his phone for the time. “I’ll take this burrowed,” he grabbed the book from the table. “I’ll think about it during my shift, bye, WooJinnie!”

 

~

 

SeungMin had just finished off an order when a certain freckled boy walked into the coffee shop. The barista smiled at his friend, who sat on the stools right in front of the counter.

 

“SeungMinnie, I want a large latte, please,” Felix beamed and took his phone out when it buzzed from an incoming text. “and an americano.”

 

“Is ChangBin coming?” the Linguistics Major asked as he started making the order and Felix nodded. “To go?” he asked but Felix’s eyes were glued to a book Chris had left on the counter when he walked into the backroom to get some lids and cups. SeungMin remained in silence for a minute, staring at the way the Perth boy’s eyes swelling up with unshed tears. The page showed a picture of something that reminded SeungMin of a mermaid and he was about to ask something when ChangBin’s voice made the two of them jump up. The barista almost dropped the drinks, “Hi, Binnie,” he placed the cups in front of them.

 

“Thanks, Minnie,” ChangBin took a sip of his coffee. “Where’s Chris?” he asked but soon the book also caught his attention.

 

“I’m here, I was getting some supplies from the backroom,” Chris waved at his friends, placing down a box filled with lids and cups. He noticed the clear change in the atmosphere. “Ah, sorry, I’ll take this away,” he said after he saw the book next to his friends, taking it and putting it in his bag.

 

“I didn’t know you were into mythology,” Felix finally spoke, bringing his cup to blow off the steam.

 

“It’s a new hobby of mine, I guess,” SeungMin rolled his eyes behind Chris.

 

“I can recommend you some books if you want,” Felix turned to ChangBin when his boyfriend hugged his shoulders. SeungMin quickly avoided the situation by going to take an order from one of the tables.

 

“Mmh,” Chris pondered for a second. “Is there one about selkies?”

 

“S-Selkies? That’s a very specific legend,” Felix scratched the back of his neck. “I… think I can look for it.”

 

“Actually, Chris, can you put these to go, please? I remembered we have plans,” the barista nodded, taking their drinks to pour them into plastic cups. SeungMin came in to rescue him as his hands were trembling a bit, so he basically did all the work. “Thanks, guys, we’ll see you later!” ChangBin waved at them and pulled Felix along by the hand, barely letting him bid them goodbye.

 

~

 

“Sorry, Chris, MinHo explicitly said to keep an eye on you,” HyunJin apologized as he walked with Chris back to his apartment by the beach. “Much more when you were close to the ocean.”

 

“I don’t know if that’s the most mature or the most childish thing all of you could do,” Chris sighed, staring at the waves. “HyunJin…”

 

“Mmh?” he stopped and raised his camera from where it was hanging around his neck to take a picture of the landscape.

 

“Did Felix… ever talked about me?” HyunJin slowly lowered the camera. “I mean, you guys live together and—”

 

“He used to, before he started dating ChangBin,” the photographer looked away when he pronounced the music performer’s name. Chris was a bit confused, but HyunJin continued. “Now it’s like he… doesn’t want to. Whenever JeongInnie mentions you, he doesn’t participate that much.”

 

“I see…”

 

“Chris,” HyunJin reached for his hands and intertwined their fingers. “I think you need talk to Felix, alone.”

 

“Why?”

 

“JeongIn’s staying with his parents tonight and I’ve got plans for later, I know for sure Felix will be home because ChangBin’s with JiSung.”

 

~

 

HyunJin called Felix as soon as he entered their apartment and soon found him trying to cook some dinner in their small kitchen. Felix skipped holding a beacon strip that he almost shoved at HyunJin’s face before he realized Chris was awkwardly standing there too.

 

“Chris!” Felix smiled nervously. “HyunJin, what’s going on?”

 

“Nothing, it’s late and we were closer than his apartment, so I told him he could stay in my room,” his housemate pointed at the door with his thumb, “since I have plans tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow, bye!” HyunJin ran out faster than lightning.

 

“I can leave if you want,” Chris immediately suggested.

 

“No,” Felix shook his hands in front of himself, “no, no. C’mon… I’ll show you HyunJin’s room,” Chris followed the younger towards the last door down a small corridor which was decorated with several photos of them and sceneries. Felix pushed the door open to reveal a room with the walls covered in photos, the one behind the bed had a design of an ocean view created of endless pictures.

 

“Wow, I knew HyunJinnie loved photography, but I never imagined how much…” Chris touched one of the most recent pictures hanging over his desk, showing the nine of them in the Halloween party. Felix walked closer and smiled at the picture too, “Felix, back then…”

 

“ChangBin’s your best friend, right?” Chris nodded. “I understand why… don’t worry.”

 

“I know people’s feelings can change rather fast… but Felix,” the Perth boy blinked up at his friend, “did you like me?”

 

Felix clenched his fists, looking around anxiously, “Chris, I…” he moved back towards the door. “I don’t think we can talk about that.”

 

“Why not? I’m not going to get between you and ChangBin, I promise,” Chris caught one of Felix’s hands, “I just… need to know.”

 

“Why? It’s in the past now,” Felix pulled his hand back, “let’s leave there.”

 

“Was it all in my head then?” the younger furrowed his brows. “Whenever we walked together, even when it wasn’t raining anymore, whenever we looked at each other during gatherings, or that night at the beach…”

A single tear rolled down Felix’s cheek, “You don’t understand,” he instinctively checked his pulse, “Chris, please, I love ChangBin.”

 

“I’m so sorry, Felix,” Chris moved back to let Felix leave. “I’m happy if you’re both happy…” just then, a photo behind the blonde caught his attention. A picture hanging one next to a photo of HyunJin and Felix laughing, probably taken my JeongIn as they were in the living room: it was Felix sitting on top of a rock by the sea, his hair wet and his freckles looked like a constellation on his skin, but there was something about the way he was looking at the sea. “Felix?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Where do selkies hide their skins after shedding them?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally managed to make progress with the selkie thing...


	5. V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a mess. My finals are coming up and I'll die, but I wanted to update before I do. I haven't checked for mistakes... I will... eventually. Maybe when I finish all the chapters.
> 
> I know the way it all happens turned out to be a bit anticlimatic, but... I liked it??? They're all college students and drama is different when you reach a certain age??? Maybe I'm growing old... sorry.

“Okay!” JeongIn cried out in the middle of what he had hoped would be a quiet study session in the library, but it turned out to be everything but that as MinHo pestered him for over _an hour_ about ChangBin acting stranger than usual. “I’ll tell you what I know if you stop whatever you’re doing, MinHo. Last week, HyunJin got Felx and Chris to talk to each other, but ChangBin came to the apartment last night and he got into a fight with Felix.”

 

“Did he find out about Chris?”

 

“I don’t think so…” the Law Major pursed his lips. “The thing is… the morning after the Halloween party, something similar happened.”

 

“What do you mean?” the dancer blinked up.

 

“Felix was asking ChangBin to give something back to him,” JeongIn frowned a bit. “Just like last night, Felix sounded distressed.”

 

“Why didn’t you help him?!”

 

“They didn’t know I was home,” the younger explained with a stern voice, “besides, I was in no position to interfere.”

 

“Whatever,” MinHo rolled his eyes, and the Law Major took a deep breath to keep himself from punching the dancer in the face. “That sounds like ChangBin is _forcing_ Felix to be with him.”

 

“MinHo, stop. You don’t even know if that’s the case,” JeongIn rubbed his temples. “Why can’t you just let them be happy? Are you in love with ChangBin or something?”

 

“ _What?_ No, I like WooJin,” he stated as a-matter-of fact. “I just hate watching Chris get hurt because of his selfish best friend.”

 

“I’m done,” JeongIn didn’t even acknowledged MinHo’s confession for WooJin. “I have things to do, goodbye, MinHo,” he slammed his books shut and stormed out of the building, leaving a worried dancer behind.

 

~

 

"ChangBin's blackmailing Felix into being his boyfriend," SeungMin was so close to slapping MinHo, because it was one thing to be dramatic but accusing someone, their friend on top of that, of doing such a thing was infuriating. "I know how it sounds, but believe me."

 

"MinHo, do you have any proof of this?"

 

"Not yet, I will... JeongIn just told me—"

 

"Look," the younger barista tried to keep his cool, "MinHo, ChangBin is our friend, and you're saying he's vile enough to force someone into a relationship with him. Felix is free to be with whoever he wants. No one asked him what he fucking wants."

 

"Thanks, MinHo," Chris slipped the cash into an envelope he sealed before he gathered his things. "SeungMin, can you finish on your own?"

 

"Yeah, sure," both of his friends watched him walk towards the door. "Where are you going?"

 

" _Home_."

 

~

 

"ChangBin!" Chris' voice filled the usually quiet apartment he shared with WooJin and ChangBin. "Seo ChangBin, I know you're home, I called JiSung!"

 

His best friend walked out of his room, headphones around his neck, before he looked up from his phone screen to finally face Chris, "What, Chris?"

 

“Do you love Felix?” ChangBin seemed taken aback for a second. “Answer me, goddammit.”

 

“How is that of your business?”

 

Chris clenched his fists at ChangBin’s mocking tone, “Because Felix is my friend,” with that, he threw his keys on the table by the door.

 

“Because you’re _in love_ with him,” ChangBin stated without blinking; luckily, Chris was able to hide his surprise. “Are you _not_?”

 

“He is _our_ friend, ChangBin,” Chris sighed, slumping his shoulders. “So just answer.”

 

“I _do_ ,” ChangBin took lethal steps until he was face to face with Chris, looking rather intimating despite their height difference. “I love him and he’s mine, Chris, you’ll never _ever_ have a chance with him. _Felix belongs to me_. You think I’m blind? I’ve seen the way you stare at him, the way you want to touch him, to _be with him_ , but you can’t. _He loves me_.”

 

“Who are you?” Chris shook his head in disbelief, and he would be lying if he said those words didn’t pierce his heart, much more coming from the person he called his best friend. “I would never try anything with him, I didn’t before because I knew you liked him, and I… I thought you were my best friend.”

 

“Best friend? You knew and you still flirted with him! Everyone wanted you guys to date so much!”

 

“That’s not true, everyone’s happy for you!” the Australian explained. “I’m happy for you!”

 

“Stop lying, Christopher!” ChangBin gritted his teeth. “I know what you’re trying to do.”

 

“What exactly is that, Seo ChangBin?”

 

“You want to _steal_ my Felix,” Chris made an almost disgusted face. “But he _can’t_ leave me, Chris.”

 

“ _What?”_ the word kept ringing in his head— _can’t—_ and he remembered the blonde’s words from a few nights before.

 

Just then WooJin entered the apartment, right in the middle of the fight, and looked at his two housemates bewildered. Chris tried to say something when ChangBin cut him off, “Everyone is always taking your side, why can’t any of you be happy for _me_? For _us_?!”

 

WooJin frowned deeply, “What are you talking about?” the exchange student dropped his bag next to the couch in the living room. “What the fuck is going on?” Something clicked in his head before he pointed at Chris. “Don’t tell me you were stupid enough to fall for whatever bullshit MinHo was talking about a few hours ago.”

 

“What?” ChangBin turned to WooJin. “ _MinHo_? What the fuck is he saying?”

 

“Something about you blackmailing—”

 

“ _Nothing_ —”

 

“Blackmailing?”

 

“Listen,” WooJin stood between the two best friends, “you two need to calm down. I’ll make something for dinner and we’ll talk this out like the adults we’re supposed to be.”

 

“I’m not hungry, I’ll be at JiSung’s,” Chris picked his keys, without even grabbing his jacket, and walked right out.

 

ChangBin seemed to snap out of whatever trance he was in as soon as his best friend slammed the door, and WooJin could only shake his head at him, turning towards the kitchen in silence.

~

 

“Chris?”

 

“I’m so sorry, JeongInnie, can I come in?”

 

“Sure,” the Law Major was half asleep, it was past midnight when his Australian friend called him from outside their apartment. “Hey, HyunJin’s in a field trip with his Nature Photo Club or something, I think you can stay there for the night. Felix is… actually he went to stay over at your place, did something happen?” the youngest rubbed his eyes, trying to get the sleep out of them.

 

“It’s a long story, Innie, I don’t want to keep you up,” JeongIn did an exaggerated hand movement in front of Chris to make him silent.

 

“Hush, I’m your friend too. I know I’ve been so busy, but I have to admit that whatever MinHo’s being saying… is partly my fault,” JeongIn fidgeted a bit with his sweater paws. “I might have told him something about ChangBin and Felix fighting.”

 

“Why would you do that, JeongInnie?”

 

“He was so annoying, Chris!” Chris could only nod in agreement to that. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything…” A soft pat to his head made him look up.

 

“It’s okay, it’s not your fault, but we should get some sleep. It’s late,” the older gave him a warm smile. “We can talk tomorrow over breakfast.”

 

“Okay.”

 

Chris texted HyunJin to made sure he wouldn’t mind being in his room, but the younger must’ve been out of signal as his messages didn’t even deliver to his phone. JeongIn told him it would be fine, if anything happened, he’d take the blame for letting the older stay over at his room (because Felix’s was out of question for obvious reasons). Once again, Chris found himself in the room covered in photos of all of them, in different moments of their lives, and he observed each. Bright smiles and slightly blurred photos from years prior made Chris felt like his life was a bit easier before Felix came into the picture, from a time where JiSung, ChangBin and he were inseparable, JeongIn wasn’t half as moody, SeungMin wasn’t as busy, HyunJin wasn’t so estranged from them, and MinHo wasn’t that dramatic. Or maybe they all were, but no one really cared, as they would spend all of their free time together, laughing and talking about the future as if they had a clue.

 

A ray of moonlight slipped through a crack in the blinds, reflecting on something in Chris’ eyes, catching his attention. Kneeling down to look under the bed, he found HyunJin’s first professional camera, and he remembered it because the younger spent a whole month showing it off when they were juniors in high school. He sat down next to the bed, pressing the power button, and blinked in surprise when it turned out to have full battery. “Jinnie...” Chris whispered as he skipped through the gallery, it was filled with nothing but photos of ChangBin through their years together. Once he left the camera back where he found it, Chris took his phone to write a new message for his photographer friend, asking if he was happy for ChangBin and Felix.

 

He was left on read.

 

~

 

Chris arrived at his apartment the next morning, with the same clothes but a different mood. A more defeated one. He spent the night tossing and turning on HyunJin’s bed, thinking about how his friend harbored a crush on ChangBin for God knows how long and even acted happy when he got in a relationship while ChangBin couldn’t stand the thought of Chris being near Felix. The Music Major stood in front of his apartment door, still spacing out, when the door opened before he could even take out his key.

 

“HyunJin?” Chris was taken aback because his friend was supposed to be in a field trip. “Hi.”

 

“Chris,” the photographer bowed his head. “I was just leaving, bye,” he pushed past him and rushed out of the building.

 

WooJin walked out of his room and noticed Chris standing by the door, giving him a small sympathetic smile then pulled him inside by the shoulder. WooJin sat him down just as ChangBin walked out of his room, stopping mid-step once he saw his best friend.

 

“Chris!” ChangBin took the place in front of him. “I’m… I’m sorry about last night, okay?”

 

“Hey, no, I’m sorry too,” Chris felt his heart swelling at his best friend’s regretful expression. “I don’t want to fight over… anything with you. You’re my best friend.”

 

For some reason, ChangBin lowered his voice, “We need to talk about Felix.”

 

~

 

“Look, Chris, I…” ChangBin started as he walked with Chris towards a secluded part of the shore close to their apartment. “I don’t know how long I can keep myself together before… _this_ messes with my head again.”

 

“What?” Chris followed ChangBin until they reached a small pile of sea rocks, which blended completely with the rest of the scenery, and watched as he pushed it to the side, revealing what looked like a jacket. “ChangBin?”

 

“I can’t explain it to you entirely,” the younger kept on throwing away some of the rocks, “I wish I could. I just… look, I can’t touch that again; otherwise, I’ll hide it away so no one will ever find it.”

 

“None of this makes sense, ChangBin,” Chris frowned. “What is _this_?” the older placed his hands on his friend’s shoulder, looking at the furry jacket.

 

“Seriously, Christopher,” ChangBin stood up, taking a step back. “Take it.”

 

“I really don’t mean to offend you, mate,” Chris pushed the clothing with his foot, “but I’m not taking _that_ with me.”

 

“Look, take it and go to Felix, okay?” the two best friends looked at each other as the wind began to blow a little harder, almost sending sand into their eyes. “Be careful… once you touch it, it’s going to be hard to let go of it.”

 

Chris quirked an eyebrow at him, disbelief clear on his face, and leaned down to pick the jacket that but before he could take it, he realized it was a coat, with slightly furry hood. The Australian tilted his head to the side, unsure of why ChangBin was now looking at him in a dangerous way, so the older snapped his fingers in front of him. “Binnie?”

 

ChangBin shook his head, “I guess this means I’m breaking up with Felix.”

 

“ _What_?”

 

In the end, Chris called Felix to pick up whatever ChangBin had left next to him on the sand, a bit scared of actually touching it after his best friend’s warning. The Perth boy arrived fifteen minutes later, out of breath, and shocked to find Chris alone.

 

“Chris?”

 

“ChangBin said you could take that,” Chris looked up and slowly stood up to be at eye with Felix. “I was kind of scared to touch it, and then ChangBin talked about you guys breaking up?” but Felix wasn’t listening to him; in fact, he was lost staring at what Chris could now see was a leather coat with a furry hood. The younger blinked back tears, slowly kneeling on the other side and seeming as afraid as ChangBin had been of even grazing it; then, he laid down on top of it, hugging it to himself. Chris felt like he was intruding in a very intimate moment, so he was surprised the moment Felix’s blurry eyes focused on him, and he couldn’t stop himself from running a gently hand through his bleached locks. His fingers traced the lines of Felix’s face, the straight line of his nose and the soft curves of his cheeks; however, their trance was broken when an unexpectedly big wave hit them.

 

Was the ocean… messing with them for having a _moment_? Were they even having one? Because not two days before, Chris was sure Felix was in love with ChangBin, and his best friend made clear that he was not giving Felix up. Now… the Perth boy was laughing so loud, soaked to the bone, and the ocean finally seemed to be at peace again. Chris’ hair fell into his eyes, drops falling from the tips, before he stared at Felix sitting up, hands still holding an iron grip on the coat that looked very dry compared to them.

 

“Chris, what did you find about selkies?”

 

“Not much, I mean, books don’t talk a lot about them,” Chris watched as Felix shook his head trying to dry his hair a bit. “Why?”

 

“There’s a very old legend within the Selkie folklore,” Felix hugged his coat to his chest, “it says that a selkie’s soulmate would be unaffected by their skin’s enchantment,” Chris stared at the younger unsure of what to say, so Felix went on, “if our skin is found, that person will feel pulled to it and it binds us to that person, it feels like love but it’s…”

 

“It’s a _curse_ ,” Felix nodded, “you’re forced to love and be loved,” Chris nodded too until it _fully_ hit him. “Wait.”

 

“What?”

 

“You said us…”

 

“Yes, and?”

 

“You…”

 

Felix’s eyes sparkled as a melodious laughter filled the air, flying with the soft sea breeze that wasn’t cold against their damp skins, and Chris could only blink in shock. Another wave reaching their feet brought him back to the moment, Chris tried hard to find his voice but it was useless. Felix patiently waited for Chris to recover, though it was a bit anticlimactic the way he exposed his secret, his heart felt at ease for once in three months ever since ChangBin got them caught under the spell. Chris’ head was a mess, so he only turned to Felix once more before he got up and walked away, just waving his head to make sure the Perth boy would try to stop him. The sea breeze began to blow, much stronger, but the Music Major couldn’t bring himself to look back.

 

Felix stayed there, coat pressed to his chest and tears in the corners of his eyes; after a while, he began walking towards the restless water as he slipped on the skin.

 

“Be free, Felix…”

 

~

 

Hot winters were a thing in Australia, so Chris and SeungMin were full with iced coffees and smoothies which were the orders they hated the most when MinHo strutted inside the place, dragging HyunJin behind and JeongIn skipping after them with a fox-like smile. Chris wasn’t surprised when one of the girls literally gawked at him from her spot on the wall-mounted table. SeungMin waved at them as he foamed a cappuccino for one of their regulars while Chris leaned on the counter to annoy the dancer with a wink; MinHo cringed and JeongIn lost it, laughing loudly.

 

“Hey, what’s up?” MinHo pushed his face back as he rolled his eyes.

 

“I heard what happened between Felix and ChangBin,” Chris arched an eyebrow. “Them… breaking up?”

 

“Yeah, I know…”

 

SeungMin stood shocked, going back and forth between MinHo and Chris, “ _I_ didn’t know, what happened? MinHo, you didn’t—”

 

“ _No_ , you idiot,” MinHo scoffed, offended, “apparently ChangBin broke up with him.”

 

“What? How is Felix?”

“He’s quite… sad, but I’m not sure it’s over that,” JeongIn shrugged, asking SeungMin for an iced-choco before he went on, “it’s weird. I haven’t seen him much lately either…”

 

“Maybe it’s time I make _my_ intervention.”

 

That’s how Chris found himself dragged to SeungMin’s trip to Manly Beach for a whole weekend getaway two weeks later. He had just sent in his scholarship application when WooJin barged into his room, empty suitcase in hand, and started grabbing the first clean clothes he found as Chris asked what the hell was going on. MinHo walked in a few seconds later, pulling him away from his computer after he turned it off, proceeding to walk him all the way to his car where HyunJin, JiSung and JeongIn were waiting.

 

“This is basically kidnap,” Chris dramatically said before MinHo shoved the bag of food into his face to shut him up from the passenger seat. “Help!” he screamed to the closed window as he laughed, dimple showing.

 

“Oh, shut up, Chris,” HyunJin rolled his eyes, giggling at the top of his lungs.

 

“Hey, HyunJin?” the younger boy turned to him, “Have you talked to ChangBin?” HyunJin’s expression became sour, shaking his head. “Sorry…”

 

“It’s okay, too soon,” JeongIn blinked confused at the two, “Nothing, JeongInnie,” he ruffled the youngest’s hair.

 

“Yah, you never tell me anything!”

 

“Because you’re always busy studying!”

 

“Kids, settle down,” WooJin spoke from the drivers’ seat once they pulled into the highway, and MinHo could only smile to himself, pretending to look out the window. Chris and JiSung snickered together, whispering to HyunJin and JeongIn a plan to try to get their friends together.

 

The rest of the ride was pretty quiet, except when a song they all knew played from JiSung’s phone, and then they’d be singing at the top of their lungs. Soon, they saw Manly Beach come into view, leaning a bit forward to take a good look at the landscape.

 

“Felix!” JeongIn ran into Felix’s open arms once they arrived at the location SeungMin had sent them a few hours before for a part of the beach where they could camp out for the next two nights. The blonde twirled them around while the rest took the things out of the two cars.

 

“Hey, you drove!” Chris patted ChangBin’s shoulder. “I’m surprised your mom lend you the car.”

 

“Well, SeungMin asked and you know how much moms love SeungMin,” they both laughed at SeungMin’s proud shoulder shake, walking past them. “So, Felix told me you haven’t speak to him since that day.”

 

“I… I don’t want to cage him again, Bin,” Chris sighed deeply. “I’m not blaming you for anything, but… I don’t know, what if I turn to be the same?”

 

“You’ll never know until you try,” ChangBin threw a towel over his shoulder, grabbing a small freezer after he handed Chris an umbrella and a bag with snacks. “If that’s the case, I’d help you,” he smiled, but Chris was able to see the guilt in his eyes, “though, I’m sure you won’t need it.”

 

“Oh, Bin!” ChangBin stopped a few steps ahead of him, looking back at him. “Talk to HyunJin, okay?” his best friend frowned but nodded anyways.

 

~

 

The three tents were all done, JiSung turned out to be an expert at making fireplaces, and the sun was slowly setting in the far horizon, painting the sky several shades of orange and yellow. JeongIn, MinHo and WooJin were cooking some of the food they had brought to make dinner while JiSung and SeungMin were playing by the water nearby. Chris saw it all sitting on a rock a few meters away from them, enjoying the last rays of the sun on his skin, when someone sat down next to him.

 

“Penny for your thoughts?” Chris turned to face a constellation of freckles smiling at him. “Hi.”

 

“Hi,” a small smile crept on his lips, man, was he _weak_ for Felix. “Sorry for not…”

 

“Talking to me for two weeks?” Chris looked down with a tight smile, “Yeah, it’s fine. I guess finding out one of friends is a _selkie_ isn’t easy to process.”

 

“It’s _not_ that,” Felix tilted his head, utterly confused. “That only makes you even more _beautiful_ , Felix. I’ve always loved the ocean, there’s something about it… until I met you, only to learn you’re also part of it, and if there’s one thing I know for sure is that… you should never try to control it.”

 

“No one can control the ocean, Chris,” the blonde’s already deep voice got lower, not a trace of space for doubts in it. “That’s why I know…”

 

“You know what? Felix? Tell me!” Chris saw Felix stand up to walk towards the end of path of rocks leading into the calm water was barely making waves. “Felix!” he followed the younger, who was laughing at him before he jumped into the water, and Chris leaned forward, looking for him when a hand grabbed his wrist and pulled him down. Being underwater again brought back memories to him, but this time the water let him swim back up with ease, wiping the water out of his eyes with his hand as he called out for Felix again. Felix popped from under then, only showing his eyes and nose, and blinked up at Chris.

 

“You’ve never wanted anything back from loving the ocean, Chris,” Felix moved closer to him, and Chris never thought the younger could fluster him, but in the water, the blonde was a whole different person. The ocean gave him confidence. “In this case, the _ocean_ wants _you_.”

 

“The ocean?”

 

“Maybe it’s just me,” Felix shrugged with a grin, and Chris smirked.

 

~

First kisses always scared Chris because he was never sure how to approach the other person, but when Felix had dived back down, his reflex was to follow him, and even when his eyes stung a little under the salty water, with the remains of sunlight breaking through the surface, he was able to find the younger, who quickly grabbed his face. Was an underwater kiss cliché? Chris couldn’t mind when the blonde breathed into his mouth, lips pressed together, and Felix took his hand to come back up.

 

The first thing they heard was MinHo’s voice calling them out, “Felix! Don’t help him in committing suicide!” Felix chuckled and shook his head. “Come on, dinner’s ready!” he waited for Chris to wobble out of the water, looking amused at how red his cheeks looked compared to his usual pale tone.

 

ChangBin and HyunJin were sitting away from them, talking in whispers, and Chris smiled at HyunJin when their eyes met. WooJin sat down on Chris’ free side on one of the foldable chairs they had brought, taking him by surprise, and could only laugh when he saw MinHo sulking next to JiSung and JeongIn. Felix and SeungMin were silently watching the whole scene from their place across the two oldest from the group. They cleaned up what they could and then divided themselves in the same living arrangements they had in their shared apartments to sleep in the tents, avoiding any complications.

 

“WooJin,” ChangBin kept his voice quiet, they weren’t that far from the other two tents, so if he spoke too loudly, they’d be able to hear. “Do you really dislike MinHo?”

 

“I don’t _dislike_ him, Binnie,” Chris, who was sleeping in the middle, turned his head towards WooJin. “He’s actually quite… _endearing_.”

 

“Look at him using fancy words from his major,” Chris stupid joke made the other two laugh. “Then… why do you cut him down every time?”

 

“I’ll be going back to Korea in a few months, guys,” it was when it hit them; WooJin wouldn’t stay with them forever, he was only there for a year. “I don’t want to hurt him by starting something I won’t be able to keep.”

 

“Long distance relationship can work… sometimes…” ChangBin propped himself up on his elbow. “I mean, if you two like each other, maybe…”

 

“Don’t, Bin, it’s okay. I just hope he understands,” Chris suddenly rolled over Woojin, hugging him, and ChangBin did the same, squeezing Chris underneath him. “Ah, who knew you were so cheesy!” the three of them moved back to their places. “Let’s enjoy the rest of the weekend together, okay?”

 

~

 

“I can’t believe the holidays are over,” MinHo whined, dropping his upper body on top of their usual table at the cafeteria, back in their usual schedules half a month later. “I can’t wait for this semester to be over.”

 

“It literally the first day, MinHo,” Chris spoke with a smile, “how can you be tired already?”

“I hate waking up early; besides, I don’t have a reason to be excited about coming to classes _unlike_ others,” the dancer pointed at Felix sleeping on Chris’ shoulder and jumped when HyunJin pushed him aside to take a picture of the Perth boy. “Whatever, I’m off to class, bye, losers!” he stood up and waved with his back to them already.

Chris swatted JiSung’s hand away when the younger tried to draw on Felix’s face, and HyunJin also took a picture of that. ChangBin smiled from behind the Photography Major before he leaned down to caress his hair, “Hey, Jinnie,” a kiss to the top of his head made the younger blush to the tips of his ears. “Oh, Chris, you got this in the mail today, I grabbed it before we left and forgot to give it to you,” he gave WooJin, who had arrived with him a few seconds earlier, the letter because he was closer to Chris.

 

“Thanks, Bin,” he took the letter with Korean written on it, quickly scanning it and ripping it open to read it.

 

“Is it about your scholarship?” WooJin took a seat next to JiSung, who was busy checking his phone until he heard the question. “I didn’t know it was for Korea.”

 

“Yeah,” Chris read everything; then, he folded it back into the envelope.

 

Everyone stared at him, except for Felix who was still peacefully asleep, until JiSung broke the silence, “So?”

 

“So…” Chris looked down at Felix’s sleeping face, “I got it,” but his tone wasn’t half as excited as it should’ve been.

 

WooJin took the letter, skimming over the lines much faster than Chris had, proving how Korean was still his native language, only to let out a soft: “ _Oh_ …”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, yeah, should MinHo and WooJin become a thing? Idk, that couple came out of a stupid joke and then turned into something real.
> 
> Uh... yeah, if you like it, uh, it'd be nice to know. Thanks~


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